Location: Santa Barbara County, California

Named for 25th US President William McKinley (1843-1901)-escribed by Historian S.E. Morison as "a kindly soul in a spineless body". McKinley acceded to the needless "Spanish-American War" but also ordered one million acres of back country land east of Santa Barbara to be set aside to form the Pine Mountain and Zaca Lake Timberland Reserve (1898). This was the nucleus of the present day Los Padres National Forest. The AWS constructed a ground observer station here consisting of a CU type cab (1935), it was destroyed by a windstorm and removed by the USFS (1974).

Called "McKinley Peak" on 1958 HPS Peak List.

Name first appears on USFS Santa Barbara National Forest map (1926).

Peak was on the original 1946 HPS Peak List.